From the March-April 2016 issue of News & Letters

Thousands of Queer people and their supporters participated in the Pride Parade in Mumbai, India, in early February. They were celebrating in part the decision of India’s Supreme Court to re-hear its 2013 decision to reinstate British colonial-era law Section 377, which criminalizes homosexual sex.

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After a Herrin, Ill. neighbor of Trangender Girl Scout (GS) Stormi told her, “Nobody wants to buy cookies from a boy in a dress,” she wound up selling more than 3,000 boxes via Digital Cookies, the GS’s online portal. Stormi’s determination inspired a New York comedy duo to give free tickets to audience members who bought Stormi’s cookies, and a California multimedia musical donated a box of her cookies for every ticket sold. Stormi, a foster child, will donate some of the proceeds to foster children.

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Activists in Chile from the Observatorio de Derechos Humanos y Legislacion have moved the Chilean Ministry of Health to order the suspension of so-called “normalizing” irreversible surgery and other treatments for Intersex children. Instead, children will be encouraged to decide what, if any, treatments they want when they reach an age when they can make these decisions on their own. The report calling for the suspension said that Transgender and Intersex children’s situation is a “cross-cutting issue relevant to substantive rights protection.”